Monday, July 30, 2012

The Star Wars Daily Strips - Star Wars in the Comics

The following is an article that was first published in Amazing Heroes #13 in July of 1982.Star Wars in the Comics
by J. Collier
Writing and drawing comic strips and
comic books about established characters is not an easy job. With
their own characters, writers and artists can let their imaginations
soar on pinions free and allow the stories to go where they will. But
when the characters are owned by someone else and are hot
merchandising properties to boot, the restrictions on creative
freedom of action mount alarmingly.
Possibly the most challenging of all
"outside" strips to produce are the Star Wars adaptations.
There the creators are obligated to abide by the somewhat scanty
background data of the two movies so far released and to do nothing
that will contradict whatever will be in the third movie—even
though Lucasfilms can't tell them what is in the third movie. So it's
by guess and by God and play it by ear, but the creative people we
talked to who are involved with the Star Wars adaptations are all
seasoned professionals, and they have learned to work within the
tight parameters, producing stories of unfailing high quality.

What is it like to adapt a contemporary
legend into comics form? We spoke with some of the writers and
artists doing just that, and they were kind enough to share many of
their thoughts and observations with us.

THE LONG ROAD TO HOTH

The current writer-artist team on the
Star Wars comic strip, as AMAZING HEROES readers should know by now,
is Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson. What many readers might not
know, however, is that Star Wars is not the first project the two
have worked on together. In fact, Goodwin and Williamson have
collaborated on so many projects in the past that their venture into
a galaxy far, far away is only the capper on a long and distinguished
partnership that reaches as far back as the early days of Warren
magazines.

Moreover, although few people know it,
Goodwin and Williamson were involved with Star Wars comics
adaptations from the very beginning. When the Star Wars strip was
being considered by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Williamson and
Goodwin were contacted about writing and drawing it. Together, the
two cooked up two weeks of samples, adapting the opening scenes of
the film. (When the strip eventually began under another artist, the
syndicate decided against beginning with an adaptation and
commissioned an original story instead.)

Williamson, however, had to turn down
the assignment because of his commitment to another strip he had been
carrying for many years, King Features' Secret Agent X-9. Although
some artists can handle more than one strip on a regular basis,
Williamson didn't feel he was among them. (His collaborator on the
X-9 strip, incidentally, was a gentleman named Archie Goodwin.)

So how did Williamson wind up at the
artistic helm of Star Wars? Well, the Syndicate kept hunting for an
artist and eventually settled on Russ Manning, the acclaimed Tarzan
and Magnus, Robot Fighter artist. Manning, seconded by various
writers (such as Steve Gerber, fresh from his stint at Marvel) and
aided by his assistants, Rick Hoberg and Dave Stevens (yup, that Dave
Stevens—the one who draws The Rocketeer for Pacific Comics), ably
produced the strip until failing health and a desire to run for
public office forced him to give it up.

In the meantime, Williamson's situation
had changed considerably. He and Goodwin had dropped X-9 (which was
taken over by EC alumnus George Evans), and Williamson had accepted a
couple of movie adaptation jobs for the comic books: Flash Gordon for
Western Publishing and The Empire Strikes Back for Marvel Comics—the
former of which, amazingly enough, was not written by Archie Goodwin.
Williamson enjoyed working on the Star Wars material, George Lucas
enjoyed the results, and the proposition was put once more to the
team. This time, they agreed.

There was one final hitch. At the time
Manning retired from the strip, Williamson was committed to finishing
up the Flash Gordon adaptation. So the Syndicate called in Alfredo
Alcala to bridge the gap between the end of the Manning reign and the
beginning of the Williamson era. Alcala, incidentally, was helped out
by "Russ Helm," a pseudonym for—you guessed it—Archie
Goodwin.

At any rate, on February 9, 1981,
newspapers across the country printed the first of many hundreds of
Star Wars strips with the signatures of Goodwin and Williamson.
They've just passed their 500th strip, and show no sign of slacking
off.

STAR WARS THE MARVEL WAY

Compared to the newspaper strips's
tangled history, the changes that the Star Wars comic book has gone
through are simple —at least according to the ubiquitous Archie
Goodwin. Roy Thomas originally brought the saga to Marvel (at the
time, the editor-in-chief was Archie Goodwin), and proceeded to adapt
the movie in the first six issues of the comic book. These issues
went on to become Marvel's bestselling titles ever. Thomas and artist
Howard Chaykin hung on for a couple of issues beyond the adaptation.
but they ultimately decided they didn't feel comfortable with the
strip and went their separate ways.

Guess who stepped in.

"I was editor-in-chief at the
time," Archie Goodwin remembers. "Roy was giving up the
book and I knew we had to find somebody." Because Marvel had so
many titles at that point, it was tough to find a writer to take over
the strip. "What I thought," Goodwin said, "was,
'Well. I'll write a few issues 'til we can settle on some other
team.' I got Carmine [Infantino] to draw it and I got Terry Austin to
ink it, and we just sort of kept doing it." Indeed they did.
Although Austin soon left and was replaced by a string of inkers,
Goodwin and lnfantino stuck with the title for three years, until
Goodwin's Epic schedule (no pun intended) forced him to relinquish
the book.

Enter David Michelinie.

Michelinie had just left The Avengers
and was writing Iron Man, a title that had gained him a strong
measure of fan popularity. Looking for work, he had mentioned to
various Marvel editors that he was interested in picking up another
book. "I hadn't even thought of Star Wars," he remembers,
"because Archie had been writing it for three years and it
seemed he would write it forever." Nevertheless, Louise Jones,
then the editor of the title, soon called up Michelinie and asked him
to write it. As a special surprise bonus, he found himself teamed
with Walt Simonson, the popular artist who had risen to fame with his
work on the "Manhunter" series in Detective Comics (written
by Archie Goodwin) and the Alien adaptation for Heavy Metal (also
written by Archie Goodwin).

BETWEEN THE ROCK AND THE HARD PLACE

Star Wars is different from many other
licensed products in that not only do the creators of the comics have
an inviolable base from which they must start, but the continuity is
also limited by what is yet to come—i.e., the as yet unreleased
third (or sixth, depending on how you count them) movie, Revenge of
the Jedi. While Goodwin has mainly worked "between" the
movies both in his comics and his strip work, Michelinie must explore
the vast unknown beyond The Empire Strikes Back—without having any
idea of what will take place in Revenge!

Goodwin admitted that before Empire
came out, it was a little tough working on the material, but now that
he and Williamson know not only where the characters have been but
where they're going, they find it much easier.

"It isn't that bad," Goodwin
mused. "My interest is generally a little more toward plotting
than character, anyway. So it doesn't bother me not having control
over the characters. Actually, I sometimes even find it kind of a
relief in a way, because it sometimes seems to me that on a regular
book you become so involved in the characters' lives that maybe you
become a little boring."

Michelinie is in a rougher spot. "There
are a lot of special problems in Star Wars," he explained, "not
only from what's been but what's to come. As far as what's been, we
can't really change anything from the end of Empire. We can't have
Han Solo located and then have him frozen for the next movie."

"I've had a couple of things,"
Michelinie continued, "that the film people have asked that I
change because they're similar to something that's going to occur in
Jedi. At first, I was thinking in terms of plots utilizing Star Wars
mythology, and after I got away from that and Walt and I started
doing our own stories with our own characters, we had very few
problems contradicting."

Michelinie is also constrained by the
fact that next year he has to lead into the adaptation of Revenge of
the Jedi, which must fit into the continuity of the comic. "We
have to have a finite storyline," he said. "There are five
more issues I've got to plot before the adaptation, at which point
everything will change. People might die, other people might be
reborn. So I can't just start a storyline and let it resolve itself.
I have to plan and five issues from now, these things have to be
resolved." As a result, Michelinie has had to curtail a plot
involving Shira Brie, an Imperial Agent whom Luke almost killed and
now, apparently, has developed genuine feelings for Luke. She may
turn up again after Revenge, but...

Michelinie is a little apprehensive
about what the third part of the trilogy might do to the cast of
characters. "Someone is bound to die," he said. "Can
you imagine if Luke and Vader both fight and die... I mean, going on
without your main hero and your main villain? 'The Adventures of
See-Threepio.' It's gonna be interesting," he chuckled.

Both Michelinie and Goodwin plan to
lead into Jedi—Michelinie with a transition issue between his
continuity and the movie, Goodwin by introducing a new character in
the strip that will reappear in the movie.

FAVORITE CHARACTERS

One thing Michelinie does miss is Han
Solo. "He would quite possibly be my favorite character if I
could write him," he laughed. Ever resourceful, though,
Michelinie has managed to integrate Solo into this year's Star Wars
Annual, which features an extended flashback involving the Harrison
Ford character. When we suggested that he might have Han back after
Revenge of the Jedi, Michelinie was skeptical. "We'll see,"
he said. "I may have no one. It might be Yoda Comics and
Stories.”

Apart from Solo, Michelinie doesn't
really have any favorites. "Most of the regular cast I have
equal feelings and affections for." He did admit that he enjoyed
writing the humorous characters, like See-Threepio. Artoo-Detoo, and
Chewbacca, although unfortunately only one of them spoke English,
limiting their roles somewhat.

Goodwin also listed Solo as his
favorite character, along with Obi-Wan Kenobi. (It seems the writers
are particularly fond of those characters they can't use.) But
generally he likes all of them too: "Lucas really created a lot
of nice archetypes," he said, "and they're all basically
fun to write. Han is a little funnier and off the wall. Luke is a
little bit more of a problem to write, just because you don't know
where he's going to wind up; it gets a little trickier."

Williamson for his part enjoyed working
with all the characters equally, although he found them hard to draw.
"I wish I could do them a little bit better—in fact, quite a
bit better—but they haven't complained yet," he concluded with
the modesty of a born perfectionist.

WORKING TOGETHER

One noteworthy thing about both teams
is how closely they work together. Goodwin and Williamson, of course,
have worked together before and Williamson often comes up with visual
ideas, bits of business that Goodwin integrates into the stories.
(The flying serpents that appear in this issue, for instance, are
vintage Williamson.)

Michelinie explained his working
relationship with Walt Simonson: "I like working with the
artists—the penciller specifically, both artists if possible. The
main advantage to that—especially in Walt's case—is that he has a
lot more enthusiasm, puts a lot more into it, has a lot more fun
doing it, than if I just handed him a plot and said, "Do this."
As a result his art's a lot more fun and I can have a lot more fun
writing it and I can put more energy into it."

Generally, Michelinie explained, he,
Simonson, and editor Louise Jones would get together for dinner.
(Simonson and Jones are married, making these get-togethers more
convenient than they might otherwise be.) "We'd talk over the
storylines of the next couple of issues. Other times l would just go
into Marvel and Walt and I would find a quiet corner someplace—I
know that's hard to believe at Marvel, but we'd ferret one out
occasionally."

"One of us will come up with an
idea," he continued, "we will take it through logical
events to a conclusion, put in the character scenes, having them act
and react consistent with their background and their characterization
in the movies.

"I worked with Bob Layton
co-plotting on Iron Man for a long time. and I worked with Walt for a
year and half on Star Wars. It's good when you get two people who are
compatible and get along with each other as human beings."

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

We asked Michelinie what his plans were
for upcoming issues of Star Wars. "It's difficult to say at this
point because Walt's dropped the strip, and because of deadline
problems we've had two fill-in issues stuck in," he sighed.
Although one of the stories was written and drawn by Michelinie and
Simonson and has been fit into the continuity, the other is entirely
out of sync and features artwork by Joe Brozowski and Vince Colletta.

Aside from that, though, "I have
started a storyline that basically involves a search for Han Solo.
The rebels have discovered that one of the other bounty hunters was
with Boba Fett but was cut out of the deal when Fett got Han Solo.
They've narrowed it down to three, and we're splitting up our
characters in couples to find these bounty hunters and try to find if
that one knows where the rendezvous site for Jabba the Hut and Boba
Fett is supposed to be. And then hopefully they will go there and
there will be some sort of story where they don't get Han Solo back,
because we can't do that.

"That's that storyline. And the
way I've got it worked out, we'll have worked up to one issue before
the adaptation which will give me one issue to tie things together
and hopefully to where Revenge begins."

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Welcome to Daily Star Wars

2009 marked the 30th anniversary of the original Star Wars daily comic strip that was published in newspapers nationwide by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. In honor of that this blog was started to celebrate some of the best Star Wars stories ever told.